Page 60 of The Vanishing Bookstore
Lenny shook her head. ‘Not so sure you’ll agree to this one, kid.’
Dora ignored her aunt. ‘I need my dress back. It’s in the Peabody Essex Museum and I need you to go and distract the staff while Lenny fakes passing out so I can take it back.’
Ambrose arched an eyebrow. ‘You want to steal your dress from the museum with our help?’
‘Yes, please. I need it, don’t ask me how or why I do, I just know that I do.’
He glanced at Lenny. ‘You’re all right with this?’
‘I haven’t got much choice; she will go get it herself if we don’t help her, and I think she stands more of a chance if we at least do our part to distract the staff.’
‘They’re going to notice an empty display cabinet. Have you not got something to replace it with? There are dresses in the shop across the road that are replicas of the style the Puritan women wore.’
‘This wasn’t exactly an authentic dress, although if we could get one a similar colour it might just do.’
Lenny left to go in search of an alternative dress, leaving Ambrose staring at Dora.
‘Are you okay?’ His fingers reached out to touch hers. ‘I mean, stealing from a museum is a serious offence, Dora. This has all been a huge shock to you and now Lucine has gone and you’re about to commit a federal crime.’
‘Even if I’m stealing my own dress? It’s not theirs, they stole it from me.’
‘Who is ever going to believe that?’
‘Well then, I’ll just have to make sure I don’t get caught.’
He smiled at her, which made her more determined than she had been moments ago and she pulled her hand away from him.
‘I will do what I can to help,’ he said. ‘The staff are pretty nice. We could always ask them if you could have it back or say you need to borrow it for a while. That it belonged to your great-great-great-grandmother or something.’
‘I haven’t got the time and if they know I want it and say no, they will know who has taken it. Better to borrow it for a little while and replace it with a replica. Sephy said she could make another, I just don’t know how long it will take her.’
‘I’ll grab my coat.’
Ambrose walked towards the counter where Margo was ringing up the sale for the customer and she looked at him.
‘You leaving so soon?’
‘Duty calls, I won’t be long.’
‘Jeez, you’re a huge help around here, you know that, don’t you?’
He laughed. ‘You know I love you, Margo.’
‘Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. You use me.’
He pecked her cheek and her cheeks flushed red.
‘Get out of here.’ She pushed him away, but Dora didn’t miss the kindness in her smile. Margo had a real soft spot for Ambrose, which was sweet. Lenny walked back in clutching a brown paper bag. She opened it and Dora peeked inside at the grey cotton dress.
‘It’s nothing like it, but if you can swap them over it might just buy us some time. Hopefully the staff won’t notice straight away. You know that stealing from a museum is a federal offence.’
‘I do know that, Ambrose just told me before you came back.’
‘Just checking, I don’t want you to end up in the cells without knowing it’s a possibility.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I will use my cloaking power as best as I can, but it’s October and I can guarantee the place will be full of tourists. Look around, there’s no room to manoeuvre, they’re everywhere.’
